Q & A WITH PATTI LuPONE : ‘Basically, I’m an Actress for Hire’

Many people think first of Patti LuPone as Libby Thatcher, mother of the teen-ager with Down’s syndrome on ABC’s long-running series “Life Goes On.” Perhaps they remember her as Lady Bird Johnson in the TV film “LBJ: The Early Years” or as daughter-in-law Florine in “Driving Miss Daisy” on the big screen.

But people who’ve seen her on Broadway, London’s West End or even the Hollywood Bowl last summer have a different take. The actress-singer won a Tony playing Argentina’s Eva Peron in “Evita” and London’s Olivier Award for her Fantine in “Les Miserables.” She did another star turn as evangelist Reno Sweeney in Lincoln Center’s revival of “Anything Goes.”

Now comes her highest stage profile yet: tortured actress Norma Desmond in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new musical, “Sunset Boulevard.” The man who set “The Phantom of the Opera” to music has now done the same with Billy Wilder’s fabled 1950 film tale of how recluse Desmond’s illusory world is shattered by the arrival of and rejection by handsome screenwriter Joe Gillis (who will be played onstage by Kevin Anderson). Her TV producers “let me go with their blessings,” says LuPone, who soon heads off to London, where “Sunset Boulevard” premieres in late June. Her current contract calls for nine months there, and later, nine months on Broadway. (As things stand, she would still be playing London--and hence unavailable--when the show has its U.S. premiere at Century City’s Shubert Theatre at 1993-year-end.)

Meanwhile, LuPone is appearing today through Jan. 17 at the Westwood Playhouse, performing show tunes with four backup singers and a seven-piece orchestra.

Calendar caught up with her by phone in rural Connecticut, where she lives with her husband, Matt Johnston, a cameraman, and their 2-year-old son, Joshua.

Question: How did “Sunset Boulevard” happen? There you were doing a TV series and making movies and suddenly you’re back onstage?

Answer: I left “Anything Goes” to do “Life Goes On”--my agent sent me the pilot script and I was moved and educated by it. The thing that I have always loved about my career has been the surprise in it. I sort of let it unfold. I don’t produce. I don’t go seeking projects. Basically, I’m an actress for hire. I never thought about television until it presented itself to me.

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Q: How does that decision look in retrospect?

A: I’m not sure I would sign up again for five years--it aged me 20 years--but I would do it again under the right circumstance. I find that Hollywood’s conception of a woman who is married and a mother is not exactly reality. . . . My character is just filled with lethargy and so subservient. I don’t even know how I played it for (so long).

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Q: How does Norma Desmond compare with that?

A: Oh, come on. Compared to Libby Thatcher, she’s an ax murderer. There’s just so much more going on in the woman. If Libby is our barometer of a normal woman, Norma is definitely insane.

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Q: So you feel you are better suited to “Sunset Boulevard”?

A: People in the New York theater community were telling me this role was perfect for me and my response was that I probably would not be the person Andrew (Lloyd Webber) would choose. But when his music director David Caddick suggested me (for the show’s workshop production at Lloyd Webber’s Sydmonton festival last September), Andrew said, “Yes, if she’s available.” “Life Goes On” producers said, “Go, by all means.”

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Q: Then what did you do? How did you prepare for the workshop?

A: I figured it was my ultimate audition for Andrew. . . . I memorized the music in Los Angeles, then I had five days’ rehearsal in London before the performance. I came up with stuff in my trailer on the Warners’ lot that you will see in my performance.

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Q: For example?

A: I can’t tell you that. Just movements and stuff like Evita’s “V” pose in “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina.” It will not be the “V” pose, however.

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Q: Has the screen version influenced your interpretation?

A: I never saw it on screen, only on television. . . . Gloria Swanson didn’t play insanity or imbalance until the final rejection by Joe. The character of Max (Desmond’s loyal, longtime servant) kept her in delicate balance. She doesn’t think this is anything but reality, and she is going to make her comeback. She is driven over the edge by the final rejection, and that was what I tried to put in my performance.

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Q: What comes next?

A: I go into fight-training mode. After “Life Goes On” wraps in February, I intend to come home and work out, steam and sing through the score every day Monday through Saturday and twice on matinee days. There’s nothing more harrowing in my life than being vocally insecure. People are paying to go hear your voice . . . and I want to be prepared. . . .

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Q: Is this your usual pattern?

A: With “Anything Goes,” the last musical I did, I wanted to sing in Ethel Merman’s key (and) actually my voice is higher than Ethel’s. I found that it took five to eight weeks to get the score in my voice. It took a long time to get my voice warmed up. I don’t want that to happen in London. . . .

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Q: How do the demands of this role compare to prior ones?

A: “Evita” called all my training into that one particular moment. Norma Desmond isn’t as difficult a role. And I’m older. There’s something to be said about actors getting better with age. It’s easier to comprehend and deliver. There isn’t as much of your own personal stuff getting in the way of the performance.

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Q: Do you worry about taking on such a film icon?

A: I think Andrew has written an incredible score, and Christopher Hampton (who wrote the book) has stayed true to the screenplay. I don’t want to curse it by saying that I thought it was great. I’ve gone through this. When I was cast as Evita, the expectation around the role was so enormous I couldn’t do anything but disappoint because everybody expected an extraordinary performance. The same feeling surrounds “Sunset Boulevard,” not just about my performance but Andrew’s show. . . .

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Q: What’s your own expectation about this show?

A: There’s a lot of irony that having been away four years, I am making a return to the stage now. I could be as obsolete at 43 years old in the film and TV industry as Norma Desmond was at her age when talkies come in. Then again, I can go back to the stage. . . .

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Q: Does your contract on “Sunset Boulevard” deal with the screen version?

A: I have an option for a screen test. That’s as much of a guarantee I’ll get it as with “Evita.”

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Q: While no film has been made of “Evita” yet, earlier discussions mentioned Meryl Streep or Madonna for the role and not you. I recall reading that you were heartbroken about it.

A: I’m still heartbroken. But any stage actor that creates a role and scores with it would be heartbroken if he or she didn’t get it in the film version. The stage actor’s performance is elusive--it is not immortalized on film (and) it becomes directorial domain. . . .

Stage performers are not bankable. We get to maybe one-fiftieth of the people a film actor gets to, so why give it to a stage actor when you have a film actor with more box-office appeal? But there’s a reason that a performance is successful onstage and if the piece is successful, then it’s going to be a success on film with or without a star. I’m hoping that Norma Desmond will change things.